Additional Paternity Pay (Adoption) - for a child placed for adoption before 5th April 2015

Where a child is placed for adoption on or before 4th April 2015, eligible spouses, partners or civil partners of adopters will be entitled to Additional Statutory Paternity Pay where there is entitlement to Statutory Adoption Pay (SAP) and that payment has been brought to an end by the adopter returning to work.

Payments of ASPP count as earnings. You must deduct tax and National Insurance Contributions (NICs) from them in the usual way.

You will normally be able to recover some or all of the ASPP you pay.

For children placed for adoption on or after 5th April 2015, there is no entitlement to ASPP. Instead, those eligible may be entitled to Shared Parental Leave (SPL) and Statutory Shared Parental Pay (ShPP) - further information on Shared Parental Leave can be found within the Support section on the website.

Paying ASPP

ASPP is paid to an employee by their employer in the same way as normal wages. ASPP is paid at the lower of:

£139.58 or

90% of AWE

for pay weeks commencing on or after Sunday 5 April 2015.

The minimum period ASPP can be paid for is two weeks and it will cease when the SAP period ends.

ASPP ends no later than 12 months after the date the child was placed with the adopter or 12 months after the date the child entered the UK.

Entitlements

ASPP FOR UK ADOPTION

Your employee and the child’s adopter must both satisfy certain conditions for entitlement to ASPP.

EMPLOYEE

Your employee will satisfy the conditions for ASPP if:

they have been matched for adoption with the child

they are the spouse, civil partner or partner of the adopter

they have been employed by you long enough

they have normal weekly earnings above the LEL in the relevant period

they intend to care for the child during the ASPP period

the adopter satisfies their conditions

the adopter has completed and signed their declaration

they have given a completed declaration to you

CHILD'S ADOPTER

The child’s adopter must have:

satisfied the conditions for entitlement to SAP

taken action to return to work

taken at least two weeks off work after the child was placed with them

at least two weeks of their SAP period remaining

signed the declaration form SC8 to confirm they intend to return to work and will stop receiving SAP.

ASPP FOR ADOPTION FROM ABROAD

Your employee and the child’s adopter must both satisfy certain conditions for entitlement to ASPP.

EMPLOYEE

The conditions are the same as for UK adoption except that your employee does not have to be adopting the child. They must also satisfy two further conditions:

they are the spouse, civil partner or partner of the adopter

they have, or expect to have, the main responsibility (apart from the adopter) for the upbringing of the child.

CHILD’S ADOPTER

The conditions are the same as for UK adoption except that instead of having taken at least two weeks off work after the child was placed with them they should have taken at least 2 weeks off work after the child entered the UK.

ASPP and Additional Paternity Leave Start and End Dates

Your employee has the right to choose when they want to take pay and leave within a set period:

UK ADOPTION

The earliest start date is 20 weeks after the child was placed with the adopter.

There must be at least two weeks SAP remaining.

ASPP must end no later than the end of the SAP period.

APL cannot exceed 26 weeks, except in exceptional circumstances, and must end no later than 12 months after the date the child was placed with the adopter.

Your employee may take unpaid APL after the SAP period ends.

ADOPTION FROM ABROAD

The earliest start date is 20 weeks after the child entered the UK.

There must be at least two weeks SAP remaining.

ASPP must end no later than the end of the SAP period.

APL cannot exceed 26 weeks, except in exceptional circumstances, and must end no later than 12 months after the child entered the UK.

Your employee may take unpaid APL after the SAP period ends.

Recovery of ASPP

All employers are entitled to recover 92% of ASPP they pay, however, if the employer qualifies for Small Employers Relief, where the total NIC in the qualifying tax year was under £45,000, they can recover 100% of ASPP paid plus an additional 3% in compensation for payments made.

CALCULATING ASPP (ADOPTION) ON BRIGHTPAY

To access this utility, simply go to 'Payroll' and select the employee from the listing:

1) Under Statutory Pay, click Calendar

2) On the Calendar, select the date the employee wishes to start their Additional Paternity Leave

3) Select Additional Paternity Leave (Adoption) from the Parenting Leave section at the top right of the screen

4) Under ‘Adopter’s Statutory Adoption Pay’ enter all relevant dates

5) Under 'Additional Paternity Leave Dates' enter the start of leave date and the length of leave

6) Average Weekly Earnings (AWE) - the program will automatically calculate the employee’s average weekly earnings for the purpose of calculating ASPP (Adoption) due.

The user can at their own discretion override the automatic calculation and manually enter an employee’s average weekly earnings. However it is recommended to seek advice from an accountant before doing so. To override the automatic calculation, simply untick the box and enter the amount.

Click Save when all sections have been completed. The program will automatically update the calendar accordingly and apply the ASPP (Adoption)

Overriding the 'Average Weekly Earnings' Calculation

If existing payment records have not been recorded in BrightPay, the automatic calculation performed by the program after completing the above may be inaccurate. In the event of this occurring, the user may override the AWE by doing the following:

1) On the main Payroll screen, click the Edit icon in the employee’s Statutory Payments section

3) Enter the average weekly earnings amount for the employee, then click out of this box

4) The program will now calculate ASPP (Adoption) based on the AWE manually entered by the user

Editing the Length of Additional Statutory Paternity Leave (Adoption)

Should an employee wish to extend or reduce the length of their Additional Paternity Leave (Adoption), the length of leave already entered for the employee can be edited as follows:

1) In Payroll, select the employee’s name on the left

2) Under Statutory Pay, click on Calendar

3) On the Calendar, select any date in advance of the current payroll date and which is currently marked as Additional Paternity Leave (Adoption)

4) Within the Additional Paternity Leave section that will appear to the right of the calendar, click the Edit icon

5) Amend the employee’s Length of Leave by selecting the number of weeks now applicable from the drop down menu

6) Click Save

7) Close the Calendar to return to the main Payroll screen

Keeping in Touch Days (KIT)

During the additional paternity period, an employee can work 10 days without losing any ASPP. These KIT days can be taken separately, consecutively or in a block. The employee may be paid for KIT days. If the employee exceeds 10 KIT days, this will result in the loss of ASPP for the week in which the work is done.

To record Keeping In Touch Days in BrightPay:

1. Under Employees, select the employee from the listing and click their Calendar tab.

2. On the Calendar, select the date of the Keeping In Touch day and click 'Keep In Touch Day' on the right hand side

3. Repeat if further Keeping In Touch Days are taken

As soon as the number of Keeping In Touch Days recorded in the employee's calendar exceeds 10 days, BrightPay will notify you in the relevant pay period that the employee is not entitled to any ASPP due to having taken their 11th (or higher) Keep In Touch day.